As we continue our Pillars of Power series, exploring the lives and legacies of America’s presidents, we turn to Harry S. Truman—a man who never expected to lead the nation. When Franklin D...
Category - America’s First Ladies
Jane Means Appleton Pierce: America’s First Ladies #14
The 14th First Lady of the United States was Jane Means Appleton Pierce, wife of President Franklin Pierce. Her story is somewhat of a tragic one. Jane suffered from depression from childhood, then...
Michelle Robinson Obama: America’s First Ladies, Part 44
Michelle Robinson would one day become our nation’s forty-fourth First Lady, and the first African-American one. She grew up in a traditional home in Chicago, achieved in school to please her ill...
Laura Welch Bush: America’s First Ladies, Part 43
Laura Lane Welch would one day become our nation’s forty-third First Lady. Before that, she was an only child who loved to read, and who had an excellent education. She also had a career as a teacher...
Hillary Rodham Clinton: America’s First Ladies, Part 42
Hillary Rodham Clinton was our nation’s forty-second First Lady. However, she had a remarkable career in politics and law long before that, and long after, being a US Senator and US Secretary of...
Barbara Pierce Bush: America’s First Ladies, Part 41
Barbara Pierce would one day become our forty-first First Lady as the wife of US President George H.W. Bush. Before that, she was the third of four children in a prominent New York City family, and...
Melania Knavs Trump: America’s First Ladies, Part 45
Melania Knavs would one day become First Lady of the United States. Born in Slovenia to a middle class family, she began modeling as a small child, and turned it into a successful career in Europe...
Nancy Robbins Davis Reagan: America’s First Ladies, Part 40
Anne Frances Robbins, who later changed her name to Nancy Davis, married fellow actor Ronald Reagan, and enjoyed a Hollywood life that later became a political one. She went from First Lady of...
Rosalynn Smith Carter: America’s First Ladies, #39
Rosalynn Smith Carter was our thirty-ninth First Lady, wife of former President Jimmy Carter. Growing up in poverty as the daughter of a farmer and a dressmaker, she entered the political sphere when...
Elizabeth “Betty” Bloomer Ford: America’s First Ladies, Part 38
Elizabeth “Betty” Bloomer Ford was our thirty-eighth First Lady, the wife of President Gerald Ford. As First Lady, she was an outspoken advocate for feminist causes and women’s rights, as well as for...
Thelma “Pat” Ryan Nixon: America’s First Ladies, Part 37
Thelma Ryan was called “Pat” from an early age, and eventually became Pat Nixon, the thirty-seventh First Lady of the United States. A farmer’s daughter, she worked her whole life until her first...
Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor Johnson | America’s First Ladies, #36
Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson was the wife of US President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the daughter of a wealthy Texas family with roots in Alabama. Her childhood was unconventional, as was her school...
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy: America’s First Ladies, #35
Jacqueline “Jackie” Bouvier Kennedy was the 35th First Lady of the United States, being married to John F. Kennedy. She came from a wealthy socialite family from New York City, and went on to become...
Mamie Doud Eisenhower: America’s First Ladies, #34
Mamie Doud Eisenhower was the 34th First Lady of the United States. From a wealthy Iowa family, she became an Army wife to Dwight D. Eisenhower, and then First Lady of the USA, and the 1st First Lady...
Bess Wallace Truman: America’s First Ladies, #33
Bess Wallace Truman was the 33rd First Lady of the United States. The wife of Harry Truman, Bess never wanted the publicity and public scrutiny that came with being the First Lady, but she did what...